Question

Medical waste falls into one of four categories: infectious, hazardous, radioactive, and "other." Infectious, hazardous, and radioactive materials represent only a small portion of all medical waste, but attract the most concern. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) estimates that infectious waste constitutes between 10 percent and 15 percent of the medical waste stream. Most is packaging, food stuffs, etc. and is similar to that which is generated by any public facility such as schools.

Imagine you have been accepted for a 4 month internship in a urgent care facility, your supervisor has a plan to separate disposable materials so they can be used in a third world country reduce the impact of the clinic on the local environment.

What are the ethical implications of this plan?

Answer 1

1.   reusing a single-use device without consent could be viewed as “hidden rationing,” and does not respect a patient’s autonomy.

After all, there is little evidence that reprocessed items are as safe as new ones, and common sense dictates that the more times something is used the more likely it is to malfunction. And since no process is perfect, the odds of infection will be higher, if only slightly, when a device is used on more than one patient.

2.The ethics of fiscal responsibility also come into play. From a utilitarian stance, it could be viewed as unethical to use an item once used.

The manufacturers will make a statement that the device is single-use only and that it’s in the best interest of patients to throw them out, whereas hospitals may turn around and argue that perhaps the manufacturers’ intentions do not relate to patient safety